9/18/02
The Spiritual Chicks^SM Speak Out!

Can you exercise your way to spiritual enlightenment?

Believe it or not, exercise is a lot like spirituality.  Despite the allure of thinner thighs in no time at all or the one minute confidence-boosting mantra, lasting benefits come not from quick fixes, but from going the extra distance to integrate exercise and spirituality into our everyday lives.    

Devoting oneself to becoming physically fit or achieving spiritual awareness requires concentrated and committed effort over the long haul.  In order to achieve a healthy and well-conditioned body, we have to exercise every muscle group on a consistent, on-going basis.  A few months of sit-ups might strengthen our abs, but what about the rest of our bodies?  And after our initial enthusiasm wears off and we stop doing the sit-ups, our bellies will return to their former flabby selves and eventually we’ll never even remember what our beautiful toned stomachs felt like.  Similarly, it is quite common to turn to God or to look for a "higher" meaning to life during times of crisis or turmoil, but as soon as we begin to feel a little better, we quickly stuff the prayers and affirmations back into our pockets and pretend nothing ever happened.  Most of us don’t realize that with practice spirituality can be successfully applied to any situation in our everyday lives, so we never feel the peace and sense of connection to all that is which comes from being spiritually aware and on the road to enlightenment.  

If the pay offs are so great, why then is it so difficult to embrace exercise or spirituality as a way of life?  Because as any of us who have tried to incorporate an on-going exercise program or a regular spiritual practice into our hectic, go get ‘em, there’s-no-time-to-waste-lives know, changing ourselves---even when we know it’s for the better---can be a real challenge.  We humans, at least in the Western world, have become quite impatient.  We are so accustomed to immediate gratification in the form of fast food, email, online banking, etc. that we believe that everything has to have a direct and immediate benefit to be considered valuable.  Yet as the fall of Enron and Worldcom shows, the "we can’t wait to really succeed so we’ll just fake it" mentality doesn’t work forever.  Eventually, those of us who get caught up in this game---physically, mentally, or spiritually---find ourselves back at square one with nothing but self-recrimination and impatience to keep us company.   

The things in life that take time and a consistent outpouring of positive energy, like raising children and developing and maintaining our interpersonal relationships, also bring us the most joy.  There’s no reason why we can’t choose to include exercise and spirituality in this category.  You can  exercise your way to spiritual enlightenment.  In fact, that’s the only way to do it.  Exercise implies sustained effort---and that’s all that’s required to achieve a healthy body or to realize our divine nature.  Now let’s get out there and really pump some iron.